Chris Licht Was Fired in Central Park

Chris Licht is out at CNN after a tumultuous 13 months as the network’s chairman and CEO. This move was expected after Licht masterminded CNN’s disastrous Donald Trump town hall and had a devastating profile written about him in The Atlantic. None of this is surprising, but the location of his firing is pretty interesting.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav summoned Licht to Central Park and after a brief walk, he fired him. This was news media’s version of Lane Kiffin getting fired on an airport tarmac.

Former CNN employee Brian Stelter posted the pull quote from the New York Times:

So Licht was fired in Central Park as New York faces the worst air quality it has seen in decades. Couldn’t Zaslav have just summoned him to an office somewhere? That probably wasn’t cruel enough.

There’s no word on what direction CNN will go in now. But Licht’s efforts only led to plummeting ratings and horrid morale. We’ll see what’s next.